This description relates to promoting philanthropy.
Philanthropy is an idea with a 2500-year history, and two cultures: one, which governed the long history, then was neglected and is now being revived, is humanistic; the other, which arose in the last century and is still dominant today, is social-scientific; it has tended to ignore the humanist tradition. Accordingly, philanthropy may be defined as “private initiatives, for public good . . . ” (the social-science side), “ . . . focusing on quality of life” (the humanistic side).
Over the course of the 20th century, large foundations have sought to professionalize philanthropy, to make it more sophisticated technically. By the end of the century professional staffs of foundations and charities were dominated by people trained in the social sciences. They tended to think in terms of group behavior and to focus on technical and procedural issues, using IRS and census data gathered by social scientists for governmental purposes. They saw society as composed of three sectors: government, business, and a third anomalous sector that is neither of those—it is tax-exempt, non-government, non-profit (meaning that it has no taxable profits). Their regulative ideal was not personal and educational or cultural, but institutional and societal: “civil society”.
With the advent of the World Wide Web, online interactive sites are available that promote philanthropy and provide information about philanthropic charities.